Difference between revisions of "Fglrx"

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'''Troubles with large RAM''' : The driver (version 8.14.13 tested on a T43) does not seem to be able to cope with large amounts of RAM: with 512 MB it works, with 1.5 GB it crashes the machine as soon as X is started.  The problem is present only if the ''fglrx'' kernel module is loaded, but independetly of whether ''"CONFIG_HIGHMEM"'' is enabled (I.e. the actual amount of RAM available to the system does not seem to matter, but rather how mauch RAM is physically installed.).
 
'''Troubles with large RAM''' : The driver (version 8.14.13 tested on a T43) does not seem to be able to cope with large amounts of RAM: with 512 MB it works, with 1.5 GB it crashes the machine as soon as X is started.  The problem is present only if the ''fglrx'' kernel module is loaded, but independetly of whether ''"CONFIG_HIGHMEM"'' is enabled (I.e. the actual amount of RAM available to the system does not seem to matter, but rather how mauch RAM is physically installed.).
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A workaround is to limit RAM by kernel option mem=768m in lilo.conf (lilo) oder menu.lst (grub). Hopefully ATI will fix this in future releases.
  
 
=== Packages ===
 
=== Packages ===

Revision as of 12:45, 30 July 2005

ATI drivers for Linux

Linux ATI driver for select Radeon, FireGL and Mobility boards

How much is the speed gain versus the opensource drivers?

- On the old drivers, I've noticed appx 40% speed gain with ATI fglrx vs open source drivers. However, there are issues with freezing/garbage after suspend, garbage when resizing desktop (ctrl-alt-plus, ctrl-alt-minus), and garbage while using VMware. The current 8.14.13 has shown 400% improvement over using "radeon" or "ati" in xorg.conf. 1200FPS glxgears! (note that glxgears isnt a benchmark tool, its so simple that its value is without any meaning... you can only compare glxgears using the same drivers/machine, if you change any of then you can have higher/lower values and in real life programs/games happend the opposite. Think in the car engine rpm, higher rpm in the same car usually its a faster car, change anything and its meaningless. ie: gears, truck, wheel size, etc make it useless)

Project Homepage / Availability

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/linux/radeon-linux.html

Status

Current version: 8.14.13 (9th June 2005)

Problems & Help

Driver Version 8.8.25: The following patch may be needed for kernels >= 2.6.10: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33798874

Driver Version 8.8.25: For kernels >= 2.6.11-rc1 try the following patch: http://www.gehirn.org.uk/wiki/images/8.8.25-kernel-2.6.11+.patch

If the ATI driver works only without the hardware acceleration, take into consideration that fglrx_dri.so was linked against libstdc++.so.5 which may not be present if your system uses gcc-3.4. To fix this, compile gcc-3.3.5 and copy libstdc++.so.5* to /usr/lib and update the dynamic linker cache.

Troubles using software suspend : when the computer comes back of suspend, X only displays a garbaged image and the computer is frozen. You have to install vbetool and use it to save/restore the video card state. If you use swsusp2 scripts you just have to uncomment "EnableVbetool yes" in /etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf. Tested with kernel 2.6.10, Debian packaged ATI drivers and swsusp2 patch on a IBM Thinkpad T42p.

This does not seem to work on the T43: The machine displays a sligthly garbaged image and is frozen upon resume. (It does work as long as the fglrx kernel driver is not inserted.) (Tested on kernel 2.6.12-rc6 with suspend2 2.1.9 and ATI driver version 8.14.13.)

Works on the T42, tested with SuSE 9.3, kernel-default (2.6.11), ATI driver 8.14.13 (for instructions see: /usr/share/doc/packages/powersave/contrib)

Troubles with large RAM : The driver (version 8.14.13 tested on a T43) does not seem to be able to cope with large amounts of RAM: with 512 MB it works, with 1.5 GB it crashes the machine as soon as X is started. The problem is present only if the fglrx kernel module is loaded, but independetly of whether "CONFIG_HIGHMEM" is enabled (I.e. the actual amount of RAM available to the system does not seem to matter, but rather how mauch RAM is physically installed.).

A workaround is to limit RAM by kernel option mem=768m in lilo.conf (lilo) oder menu.lst (grub). Hopefully ATI will fix this in future releases.

Packages

Useful links

ThinkPads that may be supported

Supported chips, as found in select IBM ThinkPads:

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